A Method of Detecting a Fault in a Protected Line in a Power Transmission System

The present disclosure relates to a method of detecting a fault in a protected line constituting at least a portion of a transmission line in an alternating current, AC, power transmission system.

In an AC power transmission system, such as a high voltage (HV) or a medium voltage (MV) power transmission system, there is a risk for major short-circuit faults, e.g. from a phase to ground or between phases. Such faults have to be detected and remedied as soon as possible. Therefore, the transmission lines are monitored. Prior art solutions typically utilize measurements of current or impedance. They have clear shortcomings. For example, to identify a position of a fault along the transmission line, there may be a need of sending measurement values between devices at different ends of the transmission line. Additionally, as regards impedance measurements the prior art methods have shortcomings regarding e.g. high-impedance faults, semaphore effect due to remote end infeed, impedance measurement even for the healthy phases, etc.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide an improved method of detecting faults on the protected line.

1 To achieve this object, and also other objects that will be evident from the following description, a method as defined in claimis provided according to the present disclosure. Preferred variants of the method will be evident from the dependent claims.

More specifically, there is provided, according to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method of detecting a fault in a protected line constituting at least a portion of a transmission line in an alternating current, AC, power transmission system, the transmission line having at least one phase, and the AC power transmission system having at least one intelligent electric device, IED, connected with the transmission line. The method comprises determining, for each phase, based on measurements at the at least one IED of at least one of a phase voltage or a phase current, at least one electric parameter; determining sequence components at a chosen point of the transmission line, by means of the at least one electric parameter; determining, for each phase, an operating quantity, OP, on basis of at least one of a first and a second sequence component of the sequence components; determining, for each phase, a restraining quantity, RST, on basis of a third sequence component of the sequence components; and comparing, for at least one phase, a property of the OP with a corresponding property of an associated RST, which is the RST for the same phase as the OP. The configuration of the operating quantity/-ies and restraining quantity/-ies and comparing them with each other in different ways enable reliable determinations of whether a fault has occurred as well as other transmission line properties related to the fault. The detection relying on uncertain calculations of impedances is thereby avoided. It should be noted that for the purposes of this application, the sequence components will also be called sequence voltages and sequence currents, depending on whether they are based on measured voltages or measured currents.

When the chosen point of the transmission line is a reach point, RP, at a distance from the IED, the method may further comprise determining whether at least one OP has a value exceeding a first threshold. If affirmative, i.e. if at least one OP has a value exceeding the first threshold, then a fault has occurred. The threshold is set at a level that gives a significant likelihood of correctness in order to reduce a risk of measurement errors.

Further, when the chosen point of the transmission line is a reach point, RP, at a distance from the IED, the method may further comprise determining in which phase the fault has occurred.

The determination of in which phase the fault has occurred may comprise selecting the OP which has the largest value and determining a phase angle difference between the selected OP and the associated RST, i.e. the RST which has been determined for the same phase as the selected OP. Thus, in this case the property of the OP and the property of the RST is phase angle. The fault has occurred in the phase that the OP relates to if a phase angle difference is within a fault interval around 180 degrees. Additionally, the fault has occurred in at least one of the other phases if the phase angle difference is within a fault interval around 0 degrees.

When the chosen point of the transmission line is at the IED, the method may further comprise determining in which phase the fault has occurred.

The determination of in which phase the fault has occurred may comprise determining, for each OP, a phase angle difference between the OP and the associated RST, wherein the fault has occurred in the phase that the OP relates to if the phase angle difference is within a fault interval around 180 degrees.

The determination of in which phase the fault has occurred may be preceded by determining whether a magnitude of the OP and a magnitude of the associated RST, for at least one of the phases, both exceed a second threshold, and, if affirmative, i.e. if they do exceed the second threshold, determining that a fault has occurred. Thus, in this case the property of the OP and the property of the RST is magnitude. The electric parameter may be based on a phase current, and the method may further comprise determining whether a magnitude of the OP and a magnitude of the associated RST, related to at least one phase, both exceed a third threshold, and whether a maximum phase current exceeds a fourth threshold.

When the chosen point of the transmission line is a reach point, RP, at a distance from the IED, the method may comprise determining whether a magnitude of the OP is bigger than a magnitude of the associated RST, and, if affirmative, determining that an unsymmetrical fault has occurred within a set reach of the distance protection.

When the chosen point of the transmission line is at the IED, the method may comprise determining whether a fault has occurred in a forward direction or in a reverse direction along the transmission line, comprising determining at least two relations of a group of relations. The group of relations may comprise:

1 2 0 1 2 0 wherein U@IED, U@IED, and U@IED are respective magnitudes of the sequence voltages at the IED, and U@RP, U@RP, and U@RP are respective magnitudes of the sequence voltages at a reach point, RP, at a distance from the IED, and determining that the fault is in forward direction if the at least two relations are true, and that the fault is in reverse direction if the at least two relations are false.

The operation of determining, for each phase, at least one electric parameter may comprise determining a phasor for each electric parameter.

The operation of determining sequence components may comprise determining sequence components for positive, negative, and zero sequence.

The first and second sequence components may be for the negative and zero sequences, and the third sequence component may be for the positive sequence.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when downloaded into an intelligent electronic device, connectable to a transmission line of a power transmission system, cause the intelligent electronic device to carry out the method set forth above.

The present disclosure will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which currently preferred embodiments of the disclosure are shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided for thoroughness and completeness, and fully convey the scope of the disclosure to the skilled person.

1 FIG. 100 101 102 103 101 102 103 101 105 106 107 108 100 100 111 112 111 112 101 101 101 101 111 112 111 112 101 105 108 101 111 112 114 shows a most general example of a power transmission systemcomprising a transmission line, having one or more phases, for example three phases, and at least two ends. In the illustrated example there are two ends. An electrical apparatus,is connected to the transmission lineat each end thereof. The electrical apparatus,may be an electrical source or an electrical load. The transmission lineis provided with one or more switching devices,,,allowing restriction of the flow of current in the power transmission system. A fault detection system for the power transmission systemcomprises one or more Intelligent Electrical Devices (IEDs),. Each IED,is connected to the transmission line, typically at an end thereof, either directly or via some other device, and is arranged to monitor the electrical activity in the transmission line, for instance by means of measuring currents and voltages in the transmission lineand using the measurements to detect abnormalities. Therefore, for the purposes of this disclosure, the portion of the transmission linewhere an IED,is connected is called a measurement point. Furthermore, the IED,is arranged to detect a fault in the transmission lineand is arranged to switch one or more of the switching devices-. It should be noted that the transmission line, or a portion thereof, that is monitored by the IED,constitutes the protected line.

1 FIG. As understood by the person skilled in the art the overall structure of the power transmission system shown inis a mere example among an almost infinite number of different variants. To give just a brief view of the variety, and in addition to what has been described above, the power transmission system may be a part of or connected to the grid, the power sources may be different kinds of power sources such as wind power plants, solar power plants, nuclear power plants, a transformer, etc., the loads may be different kinds of loads such as a production site, etc. The power transmission system may comprise a plurality of transmission lines, etc. The transmission line may be an HV AC line or an MV AC line, it may extend between power sources, between a power source and a load, etc., and, thus, as recognized above, it may constitute what is also referred to as a distribution line. Further, the transmission line may be, for instance, a power cable or an overhead line. The length of the transmission line may vary to a large extent, from a few kilometers, or even shorter, up to hundreds of kilometers.

114 201 111 114 2 FIG. According to exemplifying embodiments of the present method of detecting a fault in the protected line, the method comprises operations as illustrated in the flow chart of. In a box, a voltage and/or a current, is measured at the IEDfor each phase. The protected linetypically has three phases, but the method is applicable also to transmission systems with other numbers of phases, fewer as well as more. Thus, one or more phase voltages and/or phase currents have been measured. An electric parameter is determined for each phase, based on the measurements at the IED. For instance, the electric parameter may be a phasor of the phase voltage or phase current, for each phase. As known to the person skilled in the art, the phasor is a vector representation, which can be mathematically expressed as a complex number containing a magnitude and a phase angle. As an alternative, the electric parameter may be a basic time domain representation of the phase voltage or phase current.

202 Next, in box, on basis of the electric parameters, sequence components are determined at a chosen point of the transmission line.

203 According to the present example, the method further comprises, in, determining, for each phase, an operating quantity, OP, on basis of at least one of a first and a second sequence component of the sequence components. Typically, the operating quantity OP is based on one or two sequence components that are significant only when a fault has occurred.

204 101 Similarly, for each phase, a restraining quantity, RST, is determined on basis of a third sequence component of the sequence components, in. Typically, the restraining quantity is based on a sequence component that is significant when there is no fault on the transmission line.

205 Furthermore, in, a comparison of a property of the OP with a corresponding property of the RST for at least one phase is performed. The RST is an associated RST, i.e. the RST which has been determined for the same phase as the OP with which it is compared. The comparison is made in such a way that the result indicates if a fault property is at hand or not. For instance, the fault property can be that a fault has occurred, or in which phase the fault has occurred, etc., as will be further described below. This comparison may be regarded as at least a part of a fault criterion.

When the fault criterion has been fulfilled, conventional operations for handling the fault are performed, such as opening suitable breakers, etc., as known to the person skilled in the art.

The sequence components may, for instance, be determined for positive, negative, and zero sequence, which can be present in a three-phase system. In a two-phase system, for instance only positive sequence and zero sequence can be present.

For a phasor notation, i.e. for determining the electric parameters, the fundamental frequency phasors for three-phase voltage and current signals shall be derived. For instance, the measured voltages and currents are sampled and a full cycle Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) filter, or some other appropriate type of filtering, may be applied. Then, the sequence components for the phase currents and the phase voltages of a three-phase transmission line can be determined by matrix calculations according to:

i*120° 2 where the three phases are indexed by A, B, and C, and the positive, negative and zero sequences are indexed by 1, 2, and 0, respectively. The factor a is a complex operator, such that a=e, and i=−1.

2 0 1 The operating quantity OP could, for example, be based on the negative sequence voltage Uand the zero sequence voltage U, as a first and a second sequence component, and the corresponding restraining quantity RST could be based on the positive sequence voltage Uas a third sequence component.

114 114 In the following, examples will be given on not only the very detection of a fault as such, but also other properties of the protected linerelated to the fault, for instance, in which phase or phases the fault has occurred, and whether the fault is located within the protected line or not. In the examples of fault detection within the scope of the present method it is assumed that the protected linecontains three phases A, B, C.

3 FIG. 114 1 However, before describing the more detailed examples of how the method operates, it is referred to, which illustrates how the sequence voltages behave when different types of faults occur along the protected line. The top graph shows a three-phase fault, i.e. when all three phases are affected by the same fault. Only the positive sequence voltage Uis non-zero somewhere, but its magnitude is decreasing from a maximum value at the end points to zero at the fault point. In the second to top graph the sequence voltages at a phase-to-phase, i.e. two-phase, fault are shown. The positive and negative sequence voltages are present, and at the fault point they are equal. The third to top graph represents a two-phases-to-ground fault, where all three sequence voltages are non-zero. At the fault point they are all equal, the magnitude of the positive sequence voltage increases from the fault point towards the ends of the protected line, while the magnitudes of the other two sequence voltages decrease towards the ends. The bottom graph illustrates a phase-to-ground fault.

114 111 A B C 2 0 In a first example the chosen point of the protected lineis at the IED, and the criterion is configured for determining in which phase the fault has occurred. This fault determination inherently includes the determination that a fault has occurred. The operating quantities OP@IED, OP@IED, and OP@IED for the three phases are based on the negative sequence voltage Uand the zero sequence voltage U, and they are determined as follows:

A B C 1 Thus, the operating quantities OP represent a sum of the negative and zero sequence voltages per phase at the IED location, and they will exist for all kinds of phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground faults except for a three-phase fault. Corresponding restraining quantities RST@IED, RST@IED, and RST@IED are based on the positive sequence voltage U, and they are determined as follows:

All three restraining quantities have the same magnitude, but not the same phase angle, they are 120 degrees apart. Proper use of the “a” operator is required to derive six operating and restraining quantities.

A B C A B C A F F F H H H 5 FIG. The determination of whether a fault criterion is fulfilled comprises determining, for each operating quantity, OP, i.e. OP@IED, OP@IED, and OP@IED, a phase angle difference between the OP and its corresponding restraining quantity RST, i.e. RST@IED, RST@IED, and RST@IED. Further, the criterion comprises that a fault has occurred in the phase that the OP relates to if the phase angle difference is within a fault interval around 180 degrees. For instance, the example operating quantity OP@IED is related to the phase denoted A. With reference to, the fault interval is 180 degrees plus and minus a fault angle θ, i.e. 180±θ, where θ=75 degrees. Similarly, the phase is healthy, i.e. free from faults, if the phase angle difference is within a health interval around 0 degrees. More particularly, for a health angle θthe health interval can be expressed as 0±θ, where θ=75 degrees. The fault interval as well as the health interval can be up to 90 degrees, but due to possible errors in the measurements it is preferred, at the time being, to use more narrow intervals as mentioned above. The intervals can be chosen even more narrow if desired, such as 45 degrees or 30 degrees, etc. The choice of angle of the interval can be made with respect to different conditions. For instance, the system that the present method is applied on may be given an impact, as well as required speed of fault detection, accuracy of measurements, etc.

A further condition may be used in order to increase the reliability of the above determination of which phase/phase is/are faulty. More particularly, the above-mentioned criterion may comprise that a fault has occurred if a magnitude of the OP and a magnitude of the associated RST both exceed a threshold. The threshold can be, for instance, 5% of a rated phase-to-ground voltage. The above determinations of operating quantities, restraining quantities, their inter-relationships, and their relations with the threshold are continuously performed in order to provide a fast fault response and minimize the damages that the fault could cause of not attended to.

114 111 A B C 2 0 In a second example the chosen point of the protected lineis again at the IED, and the criterion is configured for determining in which phase the fault has occurred. This fault determination inherently includes the determination that a fault has occurred. The operating quantities OPI@IED, OPI@IED, and OPI@IED for the three phases are based on the negative sequence current Iand the zero sequence current I, and they are determined as follows:

The corresponding restraining quantities are determined as follows:

A B C A B C 5 FIG. Consequently, in this example, the electric parameters are based on the phase currents. As in the first example above, the phase angle difference between the respective operating quantity OPI@IED, OPI@IED, and OPI@IED and the corresponding restraining quantity RSTI@IED, RSTI@IED, RSTI@IED, respectively, is determined and if within the same fault interval as described above, and illustrated in, a phase where a fault has occurred is detected.

Further conditions may be added to the fault criterion. One additional condition may be that the magnitudes of both the operating quantity OP and its corresponding restraining quantity RST are above a pre-determined threshold, for instance 25% of the rated phase current. Only if that condition is fulfilled it is determined that a fault has occurred. Another additional condition comprised in the fault criterion, may be that the conclusion that a fault has occurred is conditioned by a combination of the maximum phase current measured at the IED exceeding a first threshold, such as 200% of the rated phase current, and at the same time the magnitudes of both the operating quantity and the restraining quantity for any one of the phase voltages exceed a second threshold, such as 25% of the rated phase voltage.

111 114 111 101 114 114 111 111 101 1L 0L ML In a third example, the determinations of faults are made by means of values related to a reach point RP. The reach point RP is an imaginary point at a distance from the IEDalong the protected line, or even beyond the protected line, as will be evident below. Thus, there are no further measurements made at the RP but the values at RP are estimated on basis of the measurements at the IEDand necessary line parameters of the transmission line. The line parameters include, but are not limited to, line impedances, such as a line positive sequence impedance Z, and a line zero sequence impedance Z. If a parallel transmission line exists, which is not shown in the figures, a line mutual zero sequence impedance Zmay be used as well. The line parameters are known since they are pre-determined and noted by the transmission system provider. When estimating values at RP the aim is to detect if the fault is on the protected line based on only local measurements. This may be done by defining one or more distance protection zones. For instance, two protection zones may be defined, where the first protection zone covers 80% of the protected lineand the second protection zone covers 120% of the protected line. In the calculations the protection zone is represented by a reach factor r, which will be 0.8 for the 80% case and 1.2 for the 120% case. In other words, the reach factor r is related to the distance from the measurement point, i.e. at the IED, and typically where the IEDis connected to the transmission line, to the reach point RP. The sequence currents and sequence voltages at the reach point RP are determined according to:

101 114 111 4 FIG. 3 FIG. 100 1) The magnitude of the positive sequence voltage at the reach point RP will be even lower than at the fault point FP when fault location is in-between IED and the RP. That is not physically possible, i.e. such a location does not exist in the real faulty transmission systembut it is caused by the applied estimation. 2) Magnitudes of the negative and zero sequence voltages at the reach point RP will be larger than at the fault point FP when a fault is located in-between IED and the reach point RP. That is also not physically possible but it is caused by the applied estimation. 1 1 3) For a 3-phase fault, i.e. the top most graph, the positive sequence voltage Uat the reach point RP will have 180 degrees phase shift from the positive sequence voltage Umeasured by the IED, i.e. it becomes inverted. As already noted above that does not occur in reality. 4) This inversion of the positive sequence voltage can even happen for a 2-phase or even a 1-phase fault if the fault point FP is very close to the IED and the reach point RP is quite remote from the IED. However, such positive sequence voltage inversion at the reach point RP also means that the fault is definitely within the set reach of the distance protection, i.e. within the protected zone. This example is simplified in that, inter alia, the shunt capacitance of the transmission line/protected lineis not taken into account. However, that is not absolutely necessary to detect a fault within the set protection zone and determine other properties of the fault. Furthermore, it should be noted that other more complicated methods could be used as well to estimate sequence voltages and currents at the reach point, e.g. by using two port equivalent networks, line telegraphic equations, etc, taking also the shunt capacitance into account. Assuming that the fault occurs at a point between the measurement point at the IEDand the reach point RP, the estimated sequence voltages will go through the fault point FP and may change sign, as shown in the upper most graph in. As illustrated in, this does not happen in the real system, it is a result of the estimation. However, that can be accounted for in the determinations of properties of the faults. Some further notes should be made as regards the estimations of the voltage values at the reach point RP as follows:

Based on the above information and the estimations of the sequence voltages at the reach point RP it is possible to determine different properties of the protected line related to the faults by means of operating quantities and restraining quantities determined on basis of the sequence voltages.

A B C The operating quantities per phase at the reach point RP, OP@RP, OP@RP, and OP@RP, are determined according to:

A B C A B C Thus, the operating quantities OP@RP, OP@RP, and OP@RP, like in the first example, are based on a sum of negative and zero sequence voltages. The corresponding restraining quantities at the reach point, RST@RP, RST@RP, and RST@RP are determined according to:

A B C A B A C 6 FIG. A A 6 FIG. 1) If the Operating quantity OP@RP is approximately in contra-phase from the Restraining quantity RST@RP, or within an interval thereabout, i.e. the phase angle difference is within an interval around, 180 degrees, then the fault is an A-Phase-to-Ground fault (i.e. 1-Phase-to-ground in the as shown at the left side in the graph in. A A 6 FIG. 2) If the Operating quantity OP@RP is approxaimately in phase with the Restraining quantity RST@RP, or within an interval thereabout, i.e. the phase angle difference is within an interval around 0 degrees, then the fault is a B-C-Gnd fault, i.e. in the other two phases, as shown at the right side of the graph in. In this third example, it is also determined in which phase, or phases, a fault has occurred. Similar to the first example, a phase angle difference between the operating quantity and the corresponding restraining quantity is determined. However, first it is determined if a magnitude of at least one of the operating quantities OP@RP, OP@RP, and OP@RP exceeds a minimum threshold level, such as for example 5% of the rated phase voltage. If affirmative, which it will be for all unsymmetrical faults, it is decided that a fault has occurred. Then it is determined which operating quantity has the largest magnitude. The type of the fault and consequently faulty phases can then be determined by doing the above comparison between the phase angles of the Operating and Restraining quantities for the phase having the largest magnitude of the operating quantity. For instance, assume that the operating quantity related to phase A has the largest magnitude, i.e. OP@RP>OP@RP AND OP@RP>OP@RP. The phase angle comparison is shown in. The comparison can be referred to as a directional comparison. The following principles are valid for this phase angle comparison:

101 In addition to the fault determinations above, based on operating and restraining quantities, which in turn are based on sequence components of voltages or currents, it can be determined whether a fault has occurred in a forward direction or in a reverse direction along the transmission line. A group of relations can be defined as follows:

1 2 0 1 2 0 wherein U@IED, U@IED, U@IED are respective magnitudes of the sequence voltages at the IED, and U@RP, U@RP, and U@RP are respective magnitudes of the sequence voltages at the reach point RP. At least two of the relations are used for the determination. The criterion comprises that the fault is in forward direction, i.e. in direction from the IED towards the reach point, if the at least two relations are true, and that the fault is in reverse direction if the at least two relations are false.

X X Furthermore, it can be determined that an unsymmetrical fault has happened within the protection zone if the magnitude of the Operating quantity at reach point is bigger than the magnitude of the corresponding Restraining quantity at reach point, i.e. OP@RP>RST@RP for X=A, B, or C, for any of the faulty phases. Which phase is faulty is determined as described above. When inversion of the positive sequence voltage phasor at the reach point RP has happened, then a three-phase fault is within the protection zone if all operating quantities related to voltages have small magnitudes, e.g. <5% of the rated phase voltage.

7 FIG. 700 most schematically illustrates that as an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program productcomprising instructions which, when downloaded into an intelligent electronic device, connectable to a transmission line of a power transmission system, cause the intelligent electronic device to carry out the method set forth above.